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Too Late to Buy This Remodeled Home in Tallac Village
This remodeled home in Tallac Village at 5851 Brandon Way just closed at $405,000.
Sorry, it is now too late to buy this remodeled home in Tallac Village. It just yesterday closed escrow. Funny, when I originally listed this Tallac Village home, I got a lot of pushback from agents telling me they thought the home was overpriced. I’m thinking that might be because they were unfamiliar with the neighborhood. See, when I take a listing, I thoroughly examine the surrounding neighborhood for comparable sales. What I noticed in this area was a big mix of homes, mostly on the lower end. There were a few a streets that reflected enormous pride of ownership, and this was one of those.
So often, I find, agents take the easy way out with comps. They will click that little button on the listing in MLS for comps. It’s called “find comparables.” While that is one way, it doesn’t necessarily show all of the comps. For one thing, not enough room. For another, its radius is not always wide enough to find the other comps. Not to mention, you’re not looking at the listing and photos, just status. Buyer’s agents are always busy, so they quickly glance at the results of the “comp” button. I don’t know if they disregard square footage or acreage and just note the sales price or what. But most of the arguments I engage in with agents over comps seem to stem from a different point of view.
With this remodeled home in Tallac Village, the concern was mostly the cement tile roof and the solar panels. Not every solar panel contract is something a buyer wants to assume. It can be a big drawback in a sale. Solar panels add no value to the home. Turns out there were a few cracked tiles and the solar company had installed the panels incorrectly. We were fortunate they came out and fixed it. However, there were still a few repairs we hired a roofing company to fix.
The rest of the home was sold strictly AS IS. Our first buyer flaked out on us in less than a week. He received the home inspection and canceled right after. I reviewed the inspection and could not find anything disturbing in it, so who knows. The guy was a doctor and what do doctors know about home construction? Well, there is always another buyer for that Sacramento home.
Fortunately, we found that new buyer within days of the first buyer bailing. She turned out to be a great buyer who was very eager to live near UC Davis Medical Center. The sellers let her adopt their chickens. Bawk, bawk. Such a smooth and nice transaction. Day and night difference over the first escrow. Sometimes, I do have to sell an remodeled home in Tallac Village twice and get paid once, but that’s how it goes in Sacramento real estate.
The important thing is my sellers closed at their asking price and are happy.
There is Always Another Buyer for That Sacramento Home
No matter what, there is always another buyer for that Sacramento home.
There are many listing agents in Sacramento who do not subscribe to the theory that there is always another buyer for that Sacramento home. That’s OK, that’s their practice. We’re all different. Those who do not believe that premise tend to be the agents who will do just about anything to make a sale, including, at times, throwing their seller under the bus. That’s my opinion, btw. Of course, if you ask those agents, they will disagree. But the truth is I close so many escrows, my life is not tied up in any ONE sale. I’m not gonna miss a mortgage payment or starve my cats to death if we have to find another buyer. There is always another buyer for that Sacramento home.
It’s a fact, Jack. Especially in this seller’s market. Often, agents plead with me to make the deal work. Code for push the seller into a detrimental situation. Not gonna do it. First, it is not a deal. It is a sale involving collective memories and emotional attachments created in a home, often in which a seller has lived for years, if not decades. Second, this is a financial transaction involving a willing seller and a willing buyer. Until the buyer turns not so willing.
The bad part about the practice of Sacramento real estate, and most everywhere else as well, is the fact the listing agent is not allowed to talk to the buyer. Can’t negotiate with the buyer nor directly influence. Their agent bears that responsibility. Further, we have many different types of buyer’s agents in Sacramento. Plus, no telling from where the buyer originated. Could have walked into an open house, an office or stumbled across the agent in Facebook. Not necessarily a person the agent even knows. Personally, I think many buyer’s agents do a bad job of explaining to their buyers the agent’s role. They are so worried about offending or risking the buyer’s loyalty that they often say nothing.
Unfortunately, those types of buyer’s agents are door openers. Paper pushers. Taxi drivers. People pleasers. Ineffective non-communicators.
Which means we get uninformed buyers — buyers without any kind of professional relationship with their agent — those are the ones you never know if they will close escrow. They will sign a purchase contract, but it can be meaningless to them. Agents? If the buyer asks you how she can cancel, that’s a red flag.
One thing I know for certain. If a buyer wants to cancel, the buyer will do it. Oh, the buyer might claim the home inspection revealed too many defects, but what home inspection doesn’t? Most homes have stuff wrong. Wait until the next one, buddy, I think. You think this home inspection is awful, just hang tight. Your next home might be worse. And all of the things the buyer freaked out over? Fairly certain our next buyer isn’t gonna give a damn.
Because there is always another buyer for that Sacramento home. Sometimes, buyers with cold feet drop out of buying a home all together. They quit. They remain renters. On the other hand, the sellers I represent will sell and close.
How to Stay One Step Ahead of the Sacramento Real Estate Scams
Nobody is really safe from Sacramento real estate scams.
In 1980, I won a trip to Jamaica and thought it was a scam. I called HBO and asked if they knew some scam artist was sending out letters on its letterhead telling victims they had won an all-expense-paid trip for two to Jamaica for a week. They promoted it as a collaborative effort between HBO and the Jamaica Tourist Board. And even though it was the early days of HBO when anything goes, I was still suspicious. Perhaps it’s my Midwestern upbringing or living on the streets as a child. In any case, HBO assured me that I had indeed won a trip to Jamaica. Hurricane Allen had devastated Jamaica the year before, and this PR event was supposedly a way to reinvigorate interest.
Which wasn’t entirely without its scam-factor as it had turned out. At the end of the year, I received a 1099 for $10,000. This was only 7 days, and it wasn’t luxury. In fact, I had to endure a midnight ride over tiny bridges suspended by ropes in a Jamaican taxi driven by a guy drinking Red Stripe and smoking Ganga. It terrified me to look down at the gorges. My white-knuckled taxi ride happened because the plane out of Kingston to Ocho Rios had been sitting on the tarmac filled with passengers for four hours by the time I climbed aboard.
Hey, was I not a guest of the Jamaica Tourist Board and HBO? I am not sitting on the tarmac in a plane without air conditioning. That $10,000 income proposal was an insult. Because it didn’t cost $10,000. I had been to Jamaica many times before. My own mother was asking me why I didn’t fly to Europe instead. Sure, I’d fork out $3,000 if I could deduct $10,000 off my corporate taxes. I tallied the cost of the hotels. Checked out the airfare and submitted a request to HBO to issue a revised 1099 for about 1/3rd of that cost. I guess they wanted to shut me up because they revised the 1099.
But you can see how my initial instincts were fairly correct. No free lunch.
Other people often cannot tell when a scam is about to happen. Maybe they’re not expecting it. One of my sellers texted to say people were knocking on their door, inquiring about renting his house. He thought the buyer was prematurely advertising the place for rent. I had to explain the hard, cold facts about the rental internet scams. The crooks swipe my professional listing photos, whip up an ad for a place to rent an unbelievable price, demand immediate wired funds, and then they just sit back and collect free money.
When my husband and I closed our own escrow last summer, I didn’t even bother to consider wiring funds. Too many scams involving wired funds. The crooks hack your email and send bogus wiring instructions. Once the funds are in their account, it’s over. You lose. Nope, I went to the bank and obtained a cashier’s check.
People fall for all sorts of scams. The callers start out with “I’m with the fire department” or “I work with veterans” or they use scare tactics like “your bank account has been hacked” or “we’re shutting off your electricity.” Stuff is so weird nowadays involving the White House that it’s hard to tell what is real and what is not. You say to yourself, it is not possible that a guy who is in the pocket of fossil fuel giants and believes climate change is a hoax is running the EPA. Or, that a person against educating our children is our Secretary of Education and would like to teach Bible classes in schools. Or, that our Attorney General plans to return the country to a pre-Civil Rights era.
It’s no wonder people get scammed by the crooks.
Crazy scary crap happens every day in our real world.
You see the absolute worst options in power and you say, no, you do not live in the Philippines. This is not North Korea. This is the United States of America and this is not happening. But it is.
It is not normal.
I used to talk to people and be polite when I received a telemarketing call. Not anymore. In fact, I almost hung up on an agent the other day who was referring a client to me because his voice was overly energetic. Hang up and block the call is my method. I’d rather lose a potential listing than fall victim to a scam, I guess. The bottom line, though, is if it seems too good to be true, then it is. Unless of course, I’m telling you we’ll get multiple offers and sell over list price, because that part, actually, is often true in Sacramento. Don’t worry about offending an agent if you ask her to prove it.
What to Expect from the Sacramento Winter Home Selling Season
Downtown Sacramento is often a busy market in the winter home selling season.
Coming soon to Trulia is an article about what to expect from the Sacramento winter home selling season. Part of it will probably include comments from Yours Truly. To round out opposing or supporting views, other agents will undoubtedly chime in as well. I have very specific views, developed from decades in the real estate business. Most people, I’d venture to guess, never think outside of themselves, in particular, many agents share this guilt. If you ask a Sacramento Realtor whether a seller should sell in winter, just about every single agent will tell you YES. Why? Because when the home sells, they get paid.
I say for some sellers the Sacramento winter home selling season is not the best time to sell, and for others it most certainly is. Consider the two extremes: the remodeled house and the non-updated home. These are typically at opposite ends of the spectrum. One is a buyer’s dream home, featuring every bell and whistle imaginable, over which buyers drool. The other is your typical non-exciting home with oak cabinets, white tiled counters, carpeting, white appliances, gold-toned fixtures and faucets: the stuff buyers want to rip out and redo except they have no energy, no vision and no money.
Usually, during the Sacramento winter home selling season, inventory increases and demand decreases, and days on market go up. But homes still sell.
Depending on the situation, it might make more sense for the seller of the remodeled home to wait until spring to sell. That’s because there will be more buyers in the marketplace in the spring. More buyers increase odds of multiple offers and buyers fighting over the house, which results in higher prices. However, if that seller also needs to buy, prices are likely to be higher in the spring. But there will also be more options, so that trade-off might make it worth it regardless to wait. Who really cares if it costs a few dollars more to buy a home you really want versus having to settle for what’s available?
On the other hand, a seller of a somewhat unappealing property, a home without any upgrades, that seller might consider putting her home on the market during the Sacramento winter home selling season. That’s because there will be reduced competition, fewer homes for sale during the winter than in spring. Because in the spring, this type of home will be one of 50 or more. But in the winter, the numbers reduce, so it could rank in the top 5 homes. One in 50 means your home will fall off the radar as buyers tend to gravitate toward the updated homes. But one in 5 increases your odds of selling.
Interest rates? Still relatively low, under 4.375%. Economists expect a rise in interest rates at some point over the next few years, along with more stable prices. Whether this is a good time for selling a Sacramento home during the winter depends on your personal objectives and goals. Some sellers absolutely need to sell in the winter and some buyers absolutely need to buy in the winter. Unlike states where it snows, causing dormant markets, Sacramento is a year-round real estate business. To discuss further, call top Sacramento Realtor Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Rising California Homes Prices to Break 2007 Record High
It is only a matter of time before our rising California home prices will reach our record high set in 2007, says C.A.R. Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. In fact, Appleton-Young says our homes prices will surpass that pinnacle during the next 3 to 5 years. We are still sitting with low inventory and fewer numbers of buyers who can afford to buy a home. According to C.A.R., almost 3 out 4 buyers cannot afford to buy a home in California. That’s staggering to think about. Not to mention, any little jump in interest rates could further dampen enthusiasm to buy a home in Sacramento.
I was thinking about this news last night when a client who moved to Colorado called me. I had recently sold her mother’s condo at Riva on the River, followed a few years later by selling her own home in West Sacramento. This seller wasn’t planning to buy a home in Colorado right away. But like most people who make the transition from buying to renting, buying another home was never far from her mind. You get that bug. She admitted to tapping into Zillow and Realtor.com to view homes for sale. Then one day, out riding bikes with her husband, they stumbled upon a neighborhood and said, hey, we could live here.
Sure enough, they found a home for sale, very similar to the home she left behind in West Sacramento. Except this is their house on steroids. More than twice the square footage. The market in Colorado is still crazy, bidding wars, multiple offers, says my Realtor friend in Denver, Joan Cox. My fingers are crossed that their offer gets accepted. My former client and her family should be in their new home by Thanksgiving.
All of this might lead you to wondering if rising California homes prices will keep you out of the marketplace. Not if you don’t let it. Not if you act within the next year or so. This is a great time to buy as rates are still super low, hovering around 3.875% to 4%, depending on the type of loan you get. The market won’t crash because too many buyers pay cash and others who finance are extremely well qualified with strong down payments. I had hoped we were headed toward stabilization. That would be a calming influence in Sacramento real estate. But not predicted to happen.
In Sacramento County, our highest median price for single-family homes was $395,000 in August of 2005. That was also the month I recall the phones had stopped ringing. The merry-go-round was over. As of September, 2017, our median price for single-family homes in Sacramento is $348,000. Sacramento was among the first affected in California. Our rock bottom was the summer of 2011. Hopefully, we will be among the first to taper off.
The prediction for California overall is 3 to 5 years. However, I predict at the rate we are moving, we’ll see Sacramento meet our high of 2005 in only 1 to 3 years.
We still have a lot of buyers who deserve to own a home in Sacramento. If you’d like more information or help with Sacramento real estate, please call top Sacramento Realtor Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. I answer my phone. Put 43 years of experience to work for you.
